Secretary of Government of India to deliver Keynote at 27th IPM World Congress on Project Management in Croatia

21 June 2013 – Zagreb, Croatia – Organizers of the 27th IPMA World Congress on Project Management have announced a major keynote speaker for the 2013 congress. The 27th IPMA World Congress, under the title “Finding Balance and Moving Forward,” will be held from 30 September to 3 October 2013 at one of the most beautiful venues on the Adriatic Sea, the Valamar Resort Babin Kuk in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Information at http://www.ipma2013.hr/.

Dr. Prajapati Trivedi, Secretary to the Government of India with the responsibility for Performance Management, will deliver a keynote presentation on the Government of India’s Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System for Government departments.

Based in the Cabinet Secretariat, Dr. Trivedi reviews and reports on the performance of all government departments to the Cabinet Secretary and Prime Minister. In addition, he is Chairman of the National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention. Prior to joining the Government of India, Dr. Trivedi worked as a Senior Economist for the World Bank in Washington, DC (from 1995-2009). This is his second stint in the Government. Dr. Trivedi was Economic Adviser to the Government of India from 1992-94.

A distinguished academician, Dr. Trivedi was STC Chair Professor of Public Sector Management and Director of the Centre for Public Enterprise Management at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) from 1987-1992. Starting his career as an Economics faculty member of the prestigious St. Stephen’s College in 1974, he continues to be a visiting faculty at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In addition to other leading universities of the World, he has taught at Harvard University regularly since 1979.

Dr. Trivedi studied at St. Stephen’s College (BA Economics Honours), London School of Economics (M. Sc. Economics) and Boston University (Ph.D. Economics). He has worked in more than 25 countries of the World and published five major books on various aspects of public sector management and privatization. One of his books is still used as an Economics textbook at Harvard University.

Dr. Prajapati Trivedi will talk about implementation of one of the most ambitious and far reaching project dealing with improving government performance and will summarize lessons of his experience – the Government of India’s Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System for Government departments. The Results-Framework Document (RFD) is the cornerstone of this policy. RFD is, in fact, an agreement between the Minister and Secretary of a Government department about the department’s Vision, Mission, Objectives, priorities for the year, key performance indicators, success indicators and targets. Today some 80 Government departments and 800 responsibility centers under them are covered by this policy. Thirteen Indian states (Maharastra, Punjab, Kerala, Assam, Karnataka, Haryana, Chahattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tripura, Jammu & Kashmir, and Mizoram) have also adopted RFD policy at the state-level.

While the focus of his lecture will be on RFD implementation, he will also briefly survey international experience with regards to practical tools and techniques for improving government performance. It will cover topics such as: perceptions about government performance; explanations about government performance; meaning of government performance; how to improve government performance and performance management versus project management.

Dubrovnik is one of Europe’s most fashionable destinations. Steeped in history and seemingly unchanged since the 13th Century, the city is a living museum and a live stage with an ideal connection between its historical past and the modern day. It is surrounded by medieval walls that are 1940 metres long and preserved in their original form. Since 1979 the town has been under UNESCO protection. Plan to visit the City of Dubrovnik, the historical republic from 1358-1808, whose cultural monuments still bear witness to projects from past centuries. More about Dubrovnik at http://www.tzdubrovnik.hr/eng/.

The 27th IPMA World Congress in Dubrovnik is being organized by IPMA and CAPM (the Croatian Association for Project Management – www.capm.hr), with the Civil Engineering Faculty of the University of Zagreb www.grad.unizg.hr, the International Cost Engineering Council (ICEC) – www.icoste.org and the “Baltazar Adam Krčelić” College of Business and Management (www.vspu.hr ) as co-organizers. The Chair of the 27th IPMA World Congress in Dubrovnik is Mladen Radujković. The congress program director is Mladen Vukomanovic. Visit the 2013 congress website at http://www.ipma2013.hr/.

Founded in 1965 and registered in Switzerland, International Project Management Association (IPMA) is the oldest global project management professional organization. IPMA is an international federation of more than 50 national project management societies in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. The IPMA World Congress is one of the largest and most important gatherings of project management authorities and leaders each year. The president for 2013-2014 is Mr.Mladen Radujkovic.